In the News
In Latin America and the Caribbean, which account for 12 per cent of the planet’s arable land, and one-third of its fresh water reserves, a number of factors contribute to soil degradation and to a rural exodus that compromises food security in a not-so-unlikely future.
These figures, and the warning, emerge from studies carried out by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ahead of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, celebrated on June 17. This year’s theme was “Our land. Our home. Our Future,” highlighting the link between desertification and rural migration, which is driven by the loss of productive land to desertification.
Over the past 50 years, the agricultural area in Latin America increased from 561 to 741 million hectares, with a greater expansion in South America, from 441 to 607 million hectares. This growth led to intensive use of inputs, degradation of the soil and water, a reduction of biodiversity, and deforestation.
Fourteen per cent of the world soil degradation occurs in this region, and it is worst in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and Central America), where it affects 26 per cent of the land, compared to 14 per cent in South America.
“As the soil degrades, the capacity for food production declines, jeopardising food security,” explained FAO forestry officer Jorge Meza from the organisation’s regional office in Santiago, Chile.
According to Meza, soil degradation depends on factors such as the extent and severity of the degradation, weather conditions, the economic conditions of the affected populations and the country’s level of development.
He told IPS that the first reaction of people trying to survive is intensifying the already excessive exploitation of the most accessible natural resources.
The second step they take, he said, is selling everything they have, such as machinery, to meet monetary needs for education and healthcare, or to put food on the table.
“The third is the fast increase in rural migration: adult men or young people of both sexes migrate seasonally or for several years to other regions in the country (especially to cities) or abroad, looking for work. These survival strategies tend to generate a breakdown of the community and sometimes of the family,” he added.
“The outlook for the future is that as climate change advances and rural populations, particularly vulnerable ones, fail to become more resilient, these figures could significantly increase,” warned the FAO expert.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), some 28.4 million Latin Americans live outside the countries where they were born, nearly 4.8 per cent of the total population of 599 million people.
Central America is the area with the most migration, with nearly 15 million migrants, who represent 9.7 per cent of the total population of 161 million people.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) defines “environmental migrants” as people or groups who are forced or choose to leave their communities due to sudden or gradual shifts in their environment that affect their livelihoods.
But for André Saramago, a FAO consultant on rural development, rural migration has multiple causes such as poverty, a lack of opportunities and, in some cases, such as the countries that make up the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America – Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – soaring rates of violent crime.
And these elements are now compounded by the vulnerability of homes to phenomena aggravated by climate change, such as increasingly intense and frequent droughts, he told IPS.
“This vicious circle has to do with the historical backwardness of Latin American rural areas, where vulnerability to climatic phenomena aggravate other factors that drive people to migrate, due to the lack of opportunities and because what used to be their main economic activity, agriculture, no longer allows them to survive with dignity,” Saramago said.
According to the expert, reverting this phenomenon requires comprehensive responses, to manage land in a sustainable manner, preventing degradation and promoting recovery. He said, however, that this would not be enough to combat rural migration.
“Strategic investment in rural areas is key, in order to generate public assets that enable farmers, particularly small-scale family farmers, to overcome longstanding limitations,” he said.
These are the tools, he said, “to reverse the vicious circle; it is crucial to recover and rethink the concept of rural development, where the joint elaboration of policies and the capacity to tackle the problem in a multidisciplinary and multisectoral manner are key.”
For his part, Meza said that one of these actions is improving the management and distribution of water. Over the last three decades, water use has doubled in the region – a much faster increase than the global rate. The agricultural sector, and particularly irrigation farming, represents 70 per cent of water use.
“From a social perspective, rural poverty is also reflected in a lack of access to water and land. Poor farmers have less access to land and water, they farm land with poor quality soil that are highly vulnerable to degradation. Forty per cent of the world’s most degraded land are in areas with high poverty rates,” he said.
The expert noted that there are numerous experiences that combine production and preservation of biodiversity, particularly indigenous and traditional agrifood systems, as well as management of shared resources and protection of natural resources, which provide a methodology and systematisation of practices and approaches.
Norberto Ovando, president of the Friends of the National Parks of Argentina Association and a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, described some of the experiences in his country, where 70 per cent of the territory is threatened by desertification.
Eighty per cent of Argentina’s territory is dedicated to agricultural, livestock and forestry activities. Erosion is most acute and critical in arid and semi-arid areas that make up two-thirds of the territory, where the fall in productivity translates into a decline in living conditions and displacement of the local population.
“Currently many farmers in the world and in Argentina are using the drip irrigation system, which should be replicated around the world, and governments should adopt it as a state policy, assisting farmers with soft loans for installing it. With this system, up to 50 per cent of water can be saved, compared to the traditional system,” the environmental consultant told IPS.
Novando also said that the system of production of clean, varied and productive food, known as integrated polyculture agricultural-livestock-fish farming, currently widespread in Asia, should be adopted in the region.
“Public policies that promote support for family farming and that promote rural employment are essential,” he added.
“It could be said that in Latin America and the Caribbean hunger is not a problem of production, but of access to food. For this reason, food security is related to overcoming poverty and inequality,” he said.
“Effective management of migration due to environmental causes is indispensable in order to ensure human security, health and wellbeing and to facilitate sustainable development,” he said.
These figures, and the warning, emerge from studies carried out by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ahead of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, celebrated on June 17. This year’s theme was “Our land. Our home. Our Future,” highlighting the link between desertification and rural migration, which is driven by the loss of productive land to desertification.
Over the past 50 years, the agricultural area in Latin America increased from 561 to 741 million hectares, with a greater expansion in South America, from 441 to 607 million hectares. This growth led to intensive use of inputs, degradation of the soil and water, a reduction of biodiversity, and deforestation.
Fourteen per cent of the world soil degradation occurs in this region, and it is worst in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and Central America), where it affects 26 per cent of the land, compared to 14 per cent in South America.
“As the soil degrades, the capacity for food production declines, jeopardising food security,” explained FAO forestry officer Jorge Meza from the organisation’s regional office in Santiago, Chile.
According to Meza, soil degradation depends on factors such as the extent and severity of the degradation, weather conditions, the economic conditions of the affected populations and the country’s level of development.
He told IPS that the first reaction of people trying to survive is intensifying the already excessive exploitation of the most accessible natural resources.
The second step they take, he said, is selling everything they have, such as machinery, to meet monetary needs for education and healthcare, or to put food on the table.
“The third is the fast increase in rural migration: adult men or young people of both sexes migrate seasonally or for several years to other regions in the country (especially to cities) or abroad, looking for work. These survival strategies tend to generate a breakdown of the community and sometimes of the family,” he added.
“The outlook for the future is that as climate change advances and rural populations, particularly vulnerable ones, fail to become more resilient, these figures could significantly increase,” warned the FAO expert.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), some 28.4 million Latin Americans live outside the countries where they were born, nearly 4.8 per cent of the total population of 599 million people.
Central America is the area with the most migration, with nearly 15 million migrants, who represent 9.7 per cent of the total population of 161 million people.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) defines “environmental migrants” as people or groups who are forced or choose to leave their communities due to sudden or gradual shifts in their environment that affect their livelihoods.
But for André Saramago, a FAO consultant on rural development, rural migration has multiple causes such as poverty, a lack of opportunities and, in some cases, such as the countries that make up the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America – Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – soaring rates of violent crime.
And these elements are now compounded by the vulnerability of homes to phenomena aggravated by climate change, such as increasingly intense and frequent droughts, he told IPS.
“This vicious circle has to do with the historical backwardness of Latin American rural areas, where vulnerability to climatic phenomena aggravate other factors that drive people to migrate, due to the lack of opportunities and because what used to be their main economic activity, agriculture, no longer allows them to survive with dignity,” Saramago said.
According to the expert, reverting this phenomenon requires comprehensive responses, to manage land in a sustainable manner, preventing degradation and promoting recovery. He said, however, that this would not be enough to combat rural migration.
“Strategic investment in rural areas is key, in order to generate public assets that enable farmers, particularly small-scale family farmers, to overcome longstanding limitations,” he said.
These are the tools, he said, “to reverse the vicious circle; it is crucial to recover and rethink the concept of rural development, where the joint elaboration of policies and the capacity to tackle the problem in a multidisciplinary and multisectoral manner are key.”
For his part, Meza said that one of these actions is improving the management and distribution of water. Over the last three decades, water use has doubled in the region – a much faster increase than the global rate. The agricultural sector, and particularly irrigation farming, represents 70 per cent of water use.
“From a social perspective, rural poverty is also reflected in a lack of access to water and land. Poor farmers have less access to land and water, they farm land with poor quality soil that are highly vulnerable to degradation. Forty per cent of the world’s most degraded land are in areas with high poverty rates,” he said.
The expert noted that there are numerous experiences that combine production and preservation of biodiversity, particularly indigenous and traditional agrifood systems, as well as management of shared resources and protection of natural resources, which provide a methodology and systematisation of practices and approaches.
Norberto Ovando, president of the Friends of the National Parks of Argentina Association and a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, described some of the experiences in his country, where 70 per cent of the territory is threatened by desertification.
Eighty per cent of Argentina’s territory is dedicated to agricultural, livestock and forestry activities. Erosion is most acute and critical in arid and semi-arid areas that make up two-thirds of the territory, where the fall in productivity translates into a decline in living conditions and displacement of the local population.
“Currently many farmers in the world and in Argentina are using the drip irrigation system, which should be replicated around the world, and governments should adopt it as a state policy, assisting farmers with soft loans for installing it. With this system, up to 50 per cent of water can be saved, compared to the traditional system,” the environmental consultant told IPS.
Novando also said that the system of production of clean, varied and productive food, known as integrated polyculture agricultural-livestock-fish farming, currently widespread in Asia, should be adopted in the region.
“Public policies that promote support for family farming and that promote rural employment are essential,” he added.
“It could be said that in Latin America and the Caribbean hunger is not a problem of production, but of access to food. For this reason, food security is related to overcoming poverty and inequality,” he said.
“Effective management of migration due to environmental causes is indispensable in order to ensure human security, health and wellbeing and to facilitate sustainable development,” he said.
Jamaica prisons
Jamaica has long been regarded as a homophobic country, and now a damning report on HIV/AIDS in the country’s prisons has unearthed some alarming problems.
According to a new report, Barriers Behind Bars, inmates who have been identified as lesbian or gay are being unfairly treated.
The report prepared by human rights group Stand Up for Jamaica lists what it calls severe human rights violations, including rape by fellow inmates and warders and the denial of appropriate treatment and rehabilitation services.
According to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, the report warned that the current situation needs urgent attention since it can drive the spread of the deadly virus among vulnerable groups in prisons and, ultimately, the wider population.
Stand Up for Jamaica is urging the Ministry of National Security, prison authorities and the Ministry of Health to team up and partner with other critical stakeholders to address the problem.
The group stressed the need for correctional officers and the public to be made more aware of human rights issues.
It also urged prison authorities to ensure inmates have full access to rehabilitative care and treatment as well as the introduction of global best practices to prevent new transmissions.
Executive director of Stand Up For Jamaica, Carla Gullotta told the Jamaica Gleaner that if infected prison inmates cannot benefit from appropriate care, HIV will remain a threat to the Jamaican society.
Noting that inmates often move between prison and their communities, she warned that the wider society would be at risk if infected inmates do not know status and remain untreated.
According to a new report, Barriers Behind Bars, inmates who have been identified as lesbian or gay are being unfairly treated.
The report prepared by human rights group Stand Up for Jamaica lists what it calls severe human rights violations, including rape by fellow inmates and warders and the denial of appropriate treatment and rehabilitation services.
According to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, the report warned that the current situation needs urgent attention since it can drive the spread of the deadly virus among vulnerable groups in prisons and, ultimately, the wider population.
Stand Up for Jamaica is urging the Ministry of National Security, prison authorities and the Ministry of Health to team up and partner with other critical stakeholders to address the problem.
The group stressed the need for correctional officers and the public to be made more aware of human rights issues.
It also urged prison authorities to ensure inmates have full access to rehabilitative care and treatment as well as the introduction of global best practices to prevent new transmissions.
Executive director of Stand Up For Jamaica, Carla Gullotta told the Jamaica Gleaner that if infected prison inmates cannot benefit from appropriate care, HIV will remain a threat to the Jamaican society.
Noting that inmates often move between prison and their communities, she warned that the wider society would be at risk if infected inmates do not know status and remain untreated.
The Caribbean is fast emerging as an attractive haven for refugees and the region cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the worldwide problem, an official of United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) has warned.
The revelation and caution came from UNHCR Protection Officer Ruben Barbado, as he addressed a workshop for media professionals on Refugee Protection in Trinidad and Tobago last Thursday.
Statistics show that there was a 257 per cent increase in the number of asylum seekers in the region between mid-2015 and mid-2016.
Barbado said Belize, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago were the top three countries in the region for refugees to seek haven. And those refugees came from other Caribbean nations – Cuba and Haiti – as well as further afield – Bangladesh, Colombia, Venezuela, Asia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Pakistan, Africa and the Middle East.
Figures revealed that the number of refugees in the Caribbean have steadily increased from 770 in 2014, to 837 in the following year, to 976 during the first half of 2016.
“So the reality is that many people are coming here seeking asylum….It cannot be compared with worldwide, but for countries with limited resources, it is also a concern and a challenge, but also an opportunity, because these refugees are also coming with a skill,” he said. “You have doctors, you have entrepreneurs, you have teachers, you have farmers and, in that regard, they can help the economy.”
Newsday reported that during the workshop, three groups of refugees told their stories: A Venezuelan family that fled their country due to political persecution, a Pakistani group that left because of religious persecution, and a Colombian group.
They spoke of their difficulties dealing with the police and immigration, and the issue of a lack of legislation to deal with refugees and most arrangements being on an ad hoc basis was raised repeatedly.
The revelation and caution came from UNHCR Protection Officer Ruben Barbado, as he addressed a workshop for media professionals on Refugee Protection in Trinidad and Tobago last Thursday.
Statistics show that there was a 257 per cent increase in the number of asylum seekers in the region between mid-2015 and mid-2016.
Barbado said Belize, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago were the top three countries in the region for refugees to seek haven. And those refugees came from other Caribbean nations – Cuba and Haiti – as well as further afield – Bangladesh, Colombia, Venezuela, Asia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Pakistan, Africa and the Middle East.
Figures revealed that the number of refugees in the Caribbean have steadily increased from 770 in 2014, to 837 in the following year, to 976 during the first half of 2016.
“So the reality is that many people are coming here seeking asylum….It cannot be compared with worldwide, but for countries with limited resources, it is also a concern and a challenge, but also an opportunity, because these refugees are also coming with a skill,” he said. “You have doctors, you have entrepreneurs, you have teachers, you have farmers and, in that regard, they can help the economy.”
Newsday reported that during the workshop, three groups of refugees told their stories: A Venezuelan family that fled their country due to political persecution, a Pakistani group that left because of religious persecution, and a Colombian group.
They spoke of their difficulties dealing with the police and immigration, and the issue of a lack of legislation to deal with refugees and most arrangements being on an ad hoc basis was raised repeatedly.
in the Bahamas
An American woman is scheduled for surgery in preparation for a prosthetic arm after a shark attack in the Bahamas two weeks ago left her without part of her right arm.
Tribune 242 reports that the woman was snorkelling in waters near Athol Island around noon on June 2 when the attack took place. She was transported to shore and taken to hospital in serious condition.
North Carolina residents Tiffany and James Johnson were reportedly enjoying the last stop of their cruise vacation when the mother of three encountered the shark while snorkelling in a shallow reef.
“I wasn’t in pain, it just felt like I had bumped into something so I just casually turned to my right to look to see and that’s when I was face-to-face with the shark,” Tiffany Johnson told WSOC.
She recalled seeing the shark’s mouth clamped onto her right arm. She struggled with the beast for a few minutes before it tore her arm off.
“I kept trying to yank my hand back and the last time I yanked he had cut it clean off so I was able to actually get free,” Johnson told the news station.
Her husband jumped in to help when he heard her scream, and she was helped ashore and rushed to hospital.
Doctors in the Bahamas stopped the bleeding and administered emergency treatment, but her return to the United States was said to have been delayed because of passport and customs issues.
A medical evacuation company reportedly eventually agreed to cover the flight cost to Carolinas Medical Center.
“I’m just so thankful. I’m thankful to be here,” Johnson said after the ordeal.
Tribune 242 reports that the woman was snorkelling in waters near Athol Island around noon on June 2 when the attack took place. She was transported to shore and taken to hospital in serious condition.
North Carolina residents Tiffany and James Johnson were reportedly enjoying the last stop of their cruise vacation when the mother of three encountered the shark while snorkelling in a shallow reef.
“I wasn’t in pain, it just felt like I had bumped into something so I just casually turned to my right to look to see and that’s when I was face-to-face with the shark,” Tiffany Johnson told WSOC.
She recalled seeing the shark’s mouth clamped onto her right arm. She struggled with the beast for a few minutes before it tore her arm off.
“I kept trying to yank my hand back and the last time I yanked he had cut it clean off so I was able to actually get free,” Johnson told the news station.
Her husband jumped in to help when he heard her scream, and she was helped ashore and rushed to hospital.
Doctors in the Bahamas stopped the bleeding and administered emergency treatment, but her return to the United States was said to have been delayed because of passport and customs issues.
A medical evacuation company reportedly eventually agreed to cover the flight cost to Carolinas Medical Center.
“I’m just so thankful. I’m thankful to be here,” Johnson said after the ordeal.
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